Wool combing machine



. April 5, 1938. w. M. SPRING WOOL COMBING MACHINE Filed March 9, 1935 Patented Apr. 5 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WOOL COMBING MACHINE Walter M. Spring, Springvale, Maine, assignor to Arlington Mills, Lawrence, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application March 9, 1935, Serial No. 10,188

1 Claim.

The present invention relates to wool combing machines.

One of the limiting factors in the speed of a combing machine is the vibration which is prin- 5 cipally caused by the rapid reciprocation of the dabbers. The vibration may be reduced and the speed consequently increased by a proper design of the dabbing brush motion, as described, for example, in my co-pending application Serial No. 2,520, filed January 19, 1935. Regardless of refinements in the motions themselves, however, some residual vibration may remain, presumably due to the combined effects of the dabber motions and the combs.

I have discovered that in a combing machine having a plurality of dabbers, the vibration may be almost completely eliminated or at least reduced sufficiently to permit greatly increased speed of operation, by setting and maintaining a definite displacement between the dabbers. According to the present invention, the several dabbing brushes do not operate in complete independence of each other but are caused to reciprocate in a definite phase relation. Since the phase relation must be maintained, the belt drive usually employed for dabbing motions is inadequate and the present invention therefore contemplates a positive drive.

In the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 is an elevation of a combing machine embodying the features of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is an elevation of the machine as viewed from the right-hand end of Fig. 1.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention comprises the machine having the pillars 2 each surmounted by a gear box 4. The main driving shaft 6 of the machine passes through the gear boxes and carries at the center the fast and loose pulleys 8 by which the machine is driven. The 40 gear boxes and pillars contain the usual gear and shaft connections for driving the combs, of which only the great circle comb I0 is illustrated.

The shaft 6 carries at its ends sprocket wheels l2 and M for driving the two dabbers l6 and I8 respectively, which are disposed at diametrically opposite points of the comb. Each dabbing brush motion is preferably, although not necessarily, of the type described in my co-pending 0 application above referred to, comprising a sprocket driven by a chain 22 and operating a crank 24 to reciprocate a slide 26 to the bottom of which the dabbing brush 28 is attached.

As shown in Fig. 2, the dabbers do not operate in unison but are set out of phase by approximately one-quarter cycle, that is to say, the dabbing brush for the front dabber i6 is just arriving at the bottom of its stroke while the brush for the rear dabber I8 is about halfway down. Measured in terms of angular displacement, the crank for the dabber I8 is 90 behind the crank of the dabber I6 or, in other words, the dabber l8 lags the dabber l6 by 90. At this setting, the vibration of the wholemachine is almost completely eliminated, or at least sufficiently reduced to permit a great increase in speed.

So far as I have been able to determine, there is one and. only one setting for satisfactory reduction of vibration. It might be supposed that since the 90 setting herein shown has been found to give minimum vibration, another minimum would be found by setting the dabber l8 to lead the dabber l6 by 90. This, however, is not the case, as I have determined experimentally. It is difi'icult, if not impossible, to account for the failure to find a second minimum. It is apparently true that the setting for minimum vibration is dependent in some complex manner on the direction of rotation of the combs and also on the direction of rotation of the gear and shaft connections in the gear boxes and pillars. But Whatever the theoretical considerations may be, it is true that an optimum setting exists and may be quickly determined by a simple test. It is therefore inadvisable to attempt to specify the particular setting in advance of operation. The phase relations of the two dabbers may be adjusted by varying the chain connections 22 to one of the dabbers and the point of minimum vibration may be readily discovered by first setting one of the dabbersabout 90 in advance and then 90 behind the other; The difference in vibration between the two settings is great enough so that the proper choice can be made without difficulty. A finer adjustment may then be made by slipping the chain one link at a time until the vibration is brought to the absolute minimum.

Although the best phase displacement is found tobe 90 or one-quarter cycle in the combing machine of the type shown, it is possible that with other types of machines and dabbers, the setting for minimum vibration may differ somewhat from that value. In any case, however, this setting can be very quickly determined by trial. It is essential that both dabbers be positively driven to maintain the setting after it has once been established.

The conventional dabbing brush motions are ordinary operated at not more than 900 A combing machine having, in combination, a great circle comb, two dabbing brush motions at diametrically opposite points of the comb, a shaft, and means for positively driving both dabbing brush motions from the shaft, the dabbing brush motions being displaced in fixed phase relationship by approximately one-quarter cycle at a setting of minimum vibration.

WALTER M. SPRING. 

